Strider

Strider, the greatest ninja enforcer of the future. One of the most famous Capcom characters who has been around since the 80s and still is revelant up until today, appaearing in various platforms and other games, including in the Marvel vs Capcom series. Even after his debeut in arcades decades ago, Strider still gets his own games even today, the last appearing on the PS3 back in 2014. Nothing I can say here would give him justice but I will try anyway.

"shing shing shing!" Arcade-
Here's the one and only that started it all, a personal favorite of mine and so was for my friends. We all loved Strider and would play the arcade at the local 711 back then. What was not to love about a futuristic ninja with a lser sowrd and robot pals including a tiger that would devastate anything on its path? The Sega Genesis port was almost Arcade perfect, minus a few graphical details, but it added each stage its own BGM, which the Arcade didn't do.

NES-
The NES adaptation was not too faithful to the Arcade counterpart, being that it featured a completely different storyline, characters, and premise. However, after finding out that Strider was loosely based on a Manga that was published years ago, the NES premise made sense. That is, it seemed to have more in common with the Manga that with the original Arcade motif. The game featured RPG elements and items dispersed around the planet, along with closed sections and items that would help you open new areas that were unavialable before. In the game there were two othercharacters that were related to Strider in the form of a complicated plot device. In the end, Strider fights no other than his own boss who was planning on dominating the Earth and using Hiryu as an unexpected pawn. Sounds familiar don't it?

HYUK! Sega Genesis-
Ah yes, when fans were hungry for a sequel, they never expected that it would come in the form of crap. US Gold released this turd shortly after the Sega Genesis adaptation of the original was sold. Even if the main character was an obvious miscolored sprite of Hiryu, it was decided that it was NOT the same guy and his motivation for kicking Grandmaster's ass was because of the tired kidnapped girlfriend motif. Although game play was not as good as the first game, or as entertaining, this Strider had something the other one didn't: HE COULD CLIMB ROPES!

Cool to the max PlayStation-
After an uproar with the so called sequel, Capcom seemed to step in to distribute the real deal in the form of a compilation. While it was proven that Strider 2 was an arcade in Japan, it was only released in the US as a Playstation console version. Hiryu sported a new look, remnmiscent of the Marvel vs. Capcom version, had new moves, and you could even choose between the 6 stages featured. The game had a pretty snazzy soundtrack, anime-style handdrawn cutscenes, and revamped baddies that were both integrated from the first game and first timers. Although the story seemed pretty much the same, S2 was a blast to play and worthy of being referred as a sequel. The PSX release came along with the Original adaptation of the first game, with a few extras to keep it as fresh as possible.

"C'me ere!" PC-
The PC version stemmed from the first Arcade, being that it was an "update" filled with colorful cutscenes, more spoken dialogue, and extar stages. All this could not help the fact that gameplay was sluggish, and most of the color palette seemed shot to hell. However, it was interesting to see Strider exchanging lines with bosses at the end of each round, even if the language barrier was obviously stretched out. Curiously, there is a snapshot showing Hiryu in front of two shadowy figures that seem to resemble his friends fom the NES version. Hmm.

I want a reprint of this, dammit! The Manga-
I've only heard about a Manga version of Strider, and statements that this is where Hiryu first stared his Saga. After seeing a few shots of a scanned source, I can assume the NES version had more to do with it than the Arcade version. Although it doesn't say if this story is more like a prequel or a direct sequel to said Arcade version, it sure feels like it. Many shots from the NES adaptation seemed in par with pages from the Manga, inclusing poses, characters, and quite possibly, the plotline the NES version based it on. Even with the knowledge of the Manga, there has been no news of reprinting it, n or of a new series from the original creator. Shame.

"I AM THE ONE!"
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	Arcade- Here's the one and only that started it all, a personal favorite of mine and so was for my friends. We all loved Strider and would play the arcade at the local 711 back then. What was not to love about a futuristic ninja with a lser sowrd and robot pals including a tiger that would devastate anything on its path? The Sega Genesis port was almost Arcade perfect, minus a few graphical details, but it added each stage its own BGM, which the Arcade didn't do.
	NES- The NES adaptation was not too faithful to the Arcade counterpart, being that it featured a completely different storyline, characters, and premise. However, after finding out that Strider was loosely based on a Manga that was published years ago, the NES premise made sense. That is, it seemed to have more in common with the Manga that with the original Arcade motif. The game featured RPG elements and items dispersed around the planet, along with closed sections and items that would help you open new areas that were unavialable before. In the game there were two othercharacters that were related to Strider in the form of a complicated plot device. In the end, Strider fights no other than his own boss who was planning on dominating the Earth and using Hiryu as an unexpected pawn. Sounds familiar don't it?
	Sega Genesis- Ah yes, when fans were hungry for a sequel, they never expected that it would come in the form of crap. US Gold released this turd shortly after the Sega Genesis adaptation of the original was sold. Even if the main character was an obvious miscolored sprite of Hiryu, it was decided that it was NOT the same guy and his motivation for kicking Grandmaster's ass was because of the tired kidnapped girlfriend motif. Although game play was not as good as the first game, or as entertaining, this Strider had something the other one didn't: HE COULD CLIMB ROPES!
	PlayStation- After an uproar with the so called sequel, Capcom seemed to step in to distribute the real deal in the form of a compilation. While it was proven that Strider 2 was an arcade in Japan, it was only released in the US as a Playstation console version. Hiryu sported a new look, remnmiscent of the Marvel vs. Capcom version, had new moves, and you could even choose between the 6 stages featured. The game had a pretty snazzy soundtrack, anime-style handdrawn cutscenes, and revamped baddies that were both integrated from the first game and first timers. Although the story seemed pretty much the same, S2 was a blast to play and worthy of being referred as a sequel. The PSX release came along with the Original adaptation of the first game, with a few extras to keep it as fresh as possible.
	PC- The PC version stemmed from the first Arcade, being that it was an "update" filled with colorful cutscenes, more spoken dialogue, and extar stages. All this could not help the fact that gameplay was sluggish, and most of the color palette seemed shot to hell. However, it was interesting to see Strider exchanging lines with bosses at the end of each round, even if the language barrier was obviously stretched out. Curiously, there is a snapshot showing Hiryu in front of two shadowy figures that seem to resemble his friends fom the NES version. Hmm.
	The Manga- I've only heard about a Manga version of Strider, and statements that this is where Hiryu first stared his Saga. After seeing a few shots of a scanned source, I can assume the NES version had more to do with it than the Arcade version. Although it doesn't say if this story is more like a prequel or a direct sequel to said Arcade version, it sure feels like it. Many shots from the NES adaptation seemed in par with pages from the Manga, inclusing poses, characters, and quite possibly, the plotline the NES version based it on. Even with the knowledge of the Manga, there has been no news of reprinting it, n or of a new series from the original creator. Shame.